Current leftism is a Cult of the Other. The outsiders must be “included” at the expense of in-group hierarchies — right up until they become insiders, then they can hate on the outsiders that don’t buy their dichotomies or rationale of hatred.
Matt Walsh refers to this as a “religion of self-loathing.” But is that on point? It seems to be, I grant him. His examples, beyond race, are anti-Americanism and opposition to western civilization and its norms (and therefore shame at being even a part of American or western history), hatred of the male sex, period, and the feminine sexual role.
These do exist. Indeed, recent attempts to cajole white folks to “bend the knee” for “the cause” of “#BlackLivesMatter” are examples of a huge power play in our culture. Submit, whitey!
A sickening display.
What we have here, though, is not so much self-loathing as self-abnegation. It is a religious act. Cultic, if you must. But religious, and almost all religions foist it as part of the essential attitude. Bow down to the Archons, mortal!
If you have not encountered this strain in the asceticism of Christianity, or in the very worship services of Islam, then you have not been paying attention.
The proper response to a mere mortal commanding us to kneel is at the very least a “Fuck Off” . . . but this also applies to churches and temples and cults with strange abnegation agendas.
But the ideological spur of self-abnegation in Christianity is the doctrine of Original Sin. In woke racist anti-racism, it is collective racial guilt.
While I do not “believe” in Original Sin, it is at least plausible, and I can even find an evolutionary version of the doctrine that makes some sense.
But there is nothing even plausible about collective racial guilt.
One way to counter the “self-hating” aspect is to get people to stop “identifying” by their group affiliation. If you are you not because you are white, or male, or what-have-you, then when they tell you some allegedly white, or male, or what-have-you qualities are bad, even if you exhibit some, you can take a step back and roll your eyes at the cultists.
I’m not who I am because I’m “white.” “White” isn’t my “identity.” White is my COMMONALITY with other white people. But it is only one commonality.
The whole language of “identity” is idiotic.
If you “identify” primarily by your race or sex or “gender” or even politics (which, as is often noted, you can easily change), I am deeply suspicious. Our commonalities are great things. But they are only commonalities. And many of them are not the relevant ones. To cooperate with someone else, I don’t need to fret overmuch about their commonality or lack thereof on racial or sexual or other grounds. I need to attend to their ability to communicate, abstain from aggression, commit to agreement, and to follow through on agreements.
Which brings us out of the realm of the cults.
twv
Wirkman Comment 